Adventures on the Wargames Table

Wargames Table chum Dave took along his Great War demo game (for Zero Hour) to Daffcon recently. Now, I wasn't available to attend but I was pleased to be able to help out with a few bits of terrain, etc. Dave sent me these photos which I was keen to share. The game all set up and ready to 'bully off' As mentioned before the Zero Hour rules are currently being re-worked to provide a more streamlined reading experience. The actual game mechanisms have been in place for some time and work very well. But as any rules writer will tell you, trying to turn ideas in to written rules can be quite challenging. This battle was themed around part of the British attack at Cambrai in November/December 1917, hence the Mark IV tanks and bare trees. More specifically the bridge crossing the St Quentin Canal at Masnieres. The British advance The Forces British 1 infantry battalion (3 companies of 2 platoons) supported by a tank company (2 male + 1 female, Goliath, Apollo, G...

Last Sunday I visited the club (Bristol Big'Uns, Iron Acton) to play another game of Dave Stone's exciting new WW1 rules "Zero Hour". Since our first play test back in January, Dave has made a number of minor modifications to the mechanics based on a series of games with other players in our group. However, it's good to know that the basic structure of the game remains intact - an indication that they're about right! Our forces for this game represented two slightly depleted late war battalions on the western front - perhaps at the tail end of the German Spring Offensives in 1918. Dave led the Stormtroopers whilst I led the British reinforced with some Kiwis. Deployment is done by Company, here they are at the start. (The table isn't quite as visually appealing as before, mainly because we both forgot to bring much in the way of terrain!?!) Dave's Germans Battalion CO Stormtrooper Company  - Company CO  - 3 Platoons Infantry Company  - Co...

Telegraph poles are one of those items that really seem to make a wargames table look like a 20th century battlefield, so I really had to get some. I considered making them from wooden dowelling, etc but then I saw these from 4Ground. They're advertised as ready painted but I decided that they needed to look more "concrete-y" so I painted the main 'post' black then layered on the Foundry 'Slate Grey' triad. They also make good places to put signs advertising shows - as this keen eyed subaltern has noted. Here's a closer shot of the different styles of 'tops'. The kit includes enough parts to make 7 posts with up to 2 of them being like the post on the left. Oh - and one more thing - pay close attention to the construction diagrams when building them! They're fairly easy to build, as long as you read the notes first.

Saturday evening... With two defeats already under my belt I was keen to do much better in this game. It's 1918 and the German Spring Offensives are in full swing. Two patrols encounter each other somewhere in the French countryside east of Amiens... Here's the table. And again from a different angle. Phil had kindly brought along some of his ruined buildings and other scenic bits & pieces. Here we see that the Germans have quickly occupied the ruined church and brought forward an MG08 to support the advance. My wife Jenny started leading the British in this game but as time was getting on she went to bed and Phil (who up until that point had been busily polishing his dice) took over. In the background you can see some BEF behind the wall - probably eyeing up that house as a good point to launch a flank attack against the Germans. More BEF in the centre of the field. They have brought up a Vickers to try to keep the German's heads down! Note the little shock...

Chain of Command requires the use of a number of markers or 'counters' to keep track of what troops are doing. You can purchase a perfectly usable set of plastic tokens from TFL. These do the trick admirably but I prefer to create my own more scenic versions - if possible. When troops are moving 'tactically' they are moving more slowly in order to make the most of any cover. In game terms this means they have an improved cover save. To represent this I've made a small set of scenic features to place in front of the troops to indicate this 'tactical' status. First, some bullet riddled corrugated iron for when troops are moving amongst buildings. The reverse in more detail. They're just offcuts of corrugate plasticard with some bits of match stick and plastic bricks. Here are some fences - ideal if troops are moving tactically across farmland. These are meant to be either bushes or parts of a hedge for when troops are crossing more open are...

Chums Phil and Steve have been singing the praises of TFL's Chain of Command for a while now so I've decided to give it a whirl. Steve has been playing the WW2 era, whereas Phil has been fighting encounters from 1918 when all sides began implementing more 'modern' infantry tactics. In preparation for my first game(s) I've been making some Jump Off point markers - they'll also be jolly handy in other WW1 games as objective markers, etc. Here's the full set, four British (left) and four German (right). Two of each set were made using some 40mm scenic bases I ordered from Hasslefree Miniatures some time back. I had intended to put weapons teams on them but the result looked too cramped. The crates are from Grand Manner's superb Great War Battlefield Clutter range. Here's two for the Germans. And here's two for the British. The detail was great fun to paint. After reading a bit more about Chain of Command I realised that I would need pote...

Final day of the holiday and it was off to Poperinge. Here’s the large, cobbled town square. This town became an army ‘hub’ for the Ypres salient with all of the men and supplies taking the road east to Ypres. Hundreds of thousands of men passed through here but around a quarter would not make the return journey. Although within range of the larger German guns Poperinge was a relief for many men offering as it did a chance to get clean, enjoy a meal and maybe enjoy "more" besides! However, Poperinge of 1914-18 had a darker side too. It was here that soldiers awaiting the firing squad were held. The ‘death cells’ can be visited and include an some rather moving information about a few of the poor souls that spent their last night there. The walls of one of the cells still show some of the graffiti left by those awaiting execution. In the adjacent courtyard is a post against which soldiers were stood. It was all rather chilling and to be honest I was glad to ...